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I have known Laurence since we were freshmen in high school in 1996. Back then he impressed me with his work ethic - he was the best musician in our school, and went to college on a partial piano scholarship. His dad was a preacher so he grew up without a lot of financial security; so I didn't give Laurence a hard time when he joined a hedge fund after college rather than immediately setting out to try to "save the world". But I knew his heart wasn't into acquiring wealth for its own sake. I also saw he had a brilliant business mind and that his work ethic could really benefit some of the non-profits I'd been working with.

In 2006 I moved to Honduras to teach with an organization called BECA. BECA had no paid staff and was a scrappy team of volunteer teachers living in a poor village, working with an incredible group of parents to run an experimental bilingual school for kids who ordinarily would never learn English or receive a high-quality education. Halfway through the year, we had a sudden vacancy to teach kindergarten. I called Laurence, and asked him if he would like to quit Wall Street to come and sleep in a cinderblock room in 100-degree heat, walk 3 km to school down dusty, rooster-lined roads to teach 4-year-old Honduran kids to read and count in a second language, for no pay. He said yes.

Laurence's coming to BECA has transformed it. After serving as a volunteer teacher, he applied to be our first-ever paid Executive Director, and the board hired him in 2008 for a salary of $30,000/year, which he had to raise. He works 100-hour weeks, and his "vacations" are also in Honduras, showing potential donors BECA. He quintupled our budget and revenue, and led our expansion to a second school; we now serve over 500 families. Our unpaid teachers, who work in difficult conditions, love Laurence more than I've ever seen anyone love a boss. Before he was ED every year at least one teacher would quit before the year was over. Under him, that no longer happens. Instead, teachers beg to stay a second year, so he created a special second-year program for them.

His charisma inspires everyone who works with him to love non-profit work and he causes many of our volunteers to consider anti-poverty or education work not just as charity, but also as a serious career option. Seeing this effect, Laurence began strategically recruiting more male teachers. When I taught at BECA 90% of teachers were women. Under Laurence, about half of BECA teachers are men. In our Honduran communities, fathers are scarce due to migration and far-away jobs. By bringing male teachers to these communities Laurence is doing more than changing the paradigm for these recent college grads - he's giving 367 boys the possibility of a male role model.